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Maya200
- Thread starter wombats777
- Start date
Nicely installed Jens, a very compact, 'slimline' vertical array.
Bjarne, I too have some Jacques Loussier CDs. Absolutely magnificent........
I love Jean-Michel Jarre too. Do you have Oxygene?
Ciao,
Hugh
Bjarne, I too have some Jacques Loussier CDs. Absolutely magnificent........
I love Jean-Michel Jarre too. Do you have Oxygene?
Ciao,
Hugh
Much better-sounding on vinyl! 😀
Have to put on some of my J-M J for you, next time you come over, Hugh! 🙂
In fact, now that 'lockdown' is a bit relaxed ... you are allowed to do that. My new ribbons are installed - and you haven't heard my new miniDSP setup (with 4x Topping E30 DACs, instead of the built-in ones in my previous miniDSP 10x10HD)! 🙂
Regards,
Andy
Andy,
Let us wait until your ANs are up and running, and I can hear the wonderful music AND my new Class A design!!
Many thanks,
Hugh
Let us wait until your ANs are up and running, and I can hear the wonderful music AND my new Class A design!!
Many thanks,
Hugh
Sure, Hugh - 'xept the improvement in SQ that you hear won't just be due to the AN 4Rs replacing my NAKSA 80s. 🙂
Andy
Hi Hugh
i do not think i have something with Jean Michel,,,i will ask a friend, who have ,and take a listening on some record
my next project with the Maya,,,i shall have the Heatsink outside the cabinet...to hot inside...18" with low impedans give some heat...it take a little time to figure out , the best way to do that
but first have my PC to work again...my hard drive died,,,and real men do not take backup,,,thats life..but not nice with my mail
Best bjarne
i do not think i have something with Jean Michel,,,i will ask a friend, who have ,and take a listening on some record
my next project with the Maya,,,i shall have the Heatsink outside the cabinet...to hot inside...18" with low impedans give some heat...it take a little time to figure out , the best way to do that
but first have my PC to work again...my hard drive died,,,and real men do not take backup,,,thats life..but not nice with my mail
Best bjarne
Bjarne,
Sometimes to reduce heat, as with Jens' Maya, I have suggested lower voltage on the rails. He uses 40Vac secondaries, compared to your 45Vac. This does reduce his heat, but you are absolutely correct with putting the heatsinks outside the enclosure. If this still keeps it temperatures high, consider either more heatsinking, or pulling a few turns off the secondaries, to reduce the rails to 56V DC rather than the present 64V DC.
No issues to the amp itself; it's just that it's now running lower efficiency and a lot of heat on the sink rather than in the speaker drivers!
I think you will like JM Jarre, very nice electronic music. You might like the sound track from 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', written by Alexandre Desplat, another outstanding French composer.
Ciao,
Hugh
Sometimes to reduce heat, as with Jens' Maya, I have suggested lower voltage on the rails. He uses 40Vac secondaries, compared to your 45Vac. This does reduce his heat, but you are absolutely correct with putting the heatsinks outside the enclosure. If this still keeps it temperatures high, consider either more heatsinking, or pulling a few turns off the secondaries, to reduce the rails to 56V DC rather than the present 64V DC.
No issues to the amp itself; it's just that it's now running lower efficiency and a lot of heat on the sink rather than in the speaker drivers!
I think you will like JM Jarre, very nice electronic music. You might like the sound track from 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', written by Alexandre Desplat, another outstanding French composer.
Ciao,
Hugh
Hi Hugh,
Would lowering the voltage also increase the Maya's ability to drive lower impedances?
I seem to remember a similar discussion some years ago where you advised someone to do just that for a Lifeforce 100 (or similar) amp.
Not sure I remember this right, though 😉
Cheers,
Jens
Would lowering the voltage also increase the Maya's ability to drive lower impedances?
I seem to remember a similar discussion some years ago where you advised someone to do just that for a Lifeforce 100 (or similar) amp.
Not sure I remember this right, though 😉
Cheers,
Jens
Yes, lowering the DC rail voltage does enable the Mayas (and any of Hugh's amps) to drive lower impedances, Jens. 🙂
I built a 55N+ for a mate with lower voltages ... to drive his 2 ohm Maggie ribbons happily. I also lowered the DC rails on my:
* Sorayas ... to drive my 4 ohm Maggie bass panels, and
* NAKSA 80s ... in order to drive my 2 ohm ribbons.
Andy
Thanks, Andy! Happy to hear my memory is not failing completely yet 😀
Jens, Bjarne, and Andy,
I should give you math on this stuff to get a real perspective.
Let's imagine we are driving a 2R load, and our unloaded rails are 65V, dropping under heavy current to 60V, considering pure resistive loads. With reactive loads like speaker, add about 30% to the outcome - BAD, as we know.
With 60V loaded on the rail, imagine 30V on the 2R load. From Ohms law we could expect at least 30/2=15A running into the load. This would be 450W into the load, and equally with 30V across the output transistor (60V rail - 30V load) we are also dissipating 450W into the output device. This would be catastrophic for a bipolar transistor in any form, but a 480W, tough mosfet can do it.
Now, reduce the loaded rail voltage to 55V. This would reduce the output device dissipation to 25V x 15A = 375W. A substantial reduction of device loading results from only a 5V reduction; take that reduction to 50V, and we have only 300W device dissipation.
One of the reasons I have moved to mosfets is because the Standard Operating Restrictions of bipolars are far more restricting, making it necessary to use many pairs of outputs. The reason is the physics of the device; when mosfets pass more current, any hot spots on the die become more resistive, forcing the highe current to other points on the die, equalizing the current density. Bipolars do not do this; when hot spots appear, the resistance through it drops, and MORE current flows, heating it up to destruction in a few microseconds. This phenomenon is very serious with heavy loads and it reflects the tiny die which is passing all this current - a lot of heat is produced. So designers like the mosfet because they cope with this well, and since mosfet technology has erupted in the last twenty years, these are good devices for amplifiers. Their own serious issues are the sensitivity of the gate, its susceptibility to ESD destruction, and the biasing with temperature. But once in the circuit, carefully protected with zeners and snubbers, and fitted with an appropriate bias system, they are wonderful devices and modern mosfets with high transconductance have very little distortion vis a vis bipolar.
HD
I should give you math on this stuff to get a real perspective.
Let's imagine we are driving a 2R load, and our unloaded rails are 65V, dropping under heavy current to 60V, considering pure resistive loads. With reactive loads like speaker, add about 30% to the outcome - BAD, as we know.
With 60V loaded on the rail, imagine 30V on the 2R load. From Ohms law we could expect at least 30/2=15A running into the load. This would be 450W into the load, and equally with 30V across the output transistor (60V rail - 30V load) we are also dissipating 450W into the output device. This would be catastrophic for a bipolar transistor in any form, but a 480W, tough mosfet can do it.
Now, reduce the loaded rail voltage to 55V. This would reduce the output device dissipation to 25V x 15A = 375W. A substantial reduction of device loading results from only a 5V reduction; take that reduction to 50V, and we have only 300W device dissipation.
One of the reasons I have moved to mosfets is because the Standard Operating Restrictions of bipolars are far more restricting, making it necessary to use many pairs of outputs. The reason is the physics of the device; when mosfets pass more current, any hot spots on the die become more resistive, forcing the highe current to other points on the die, equalizing the current density. Bipolars do not do this; when hot spots appear, the resistance through it drops, and MORE current flows, heating it up to destruction in a few microseconds. This phenomenon is very serious with heavy loads and it reflects the tiny die which is passing all this current - a lot of heat is produced. So designers like the mosfet because they cope with this well, and since mosfet technology has erupted in the last twenty years, these are good devices for amplifiers. Their own serious issues are the sensitivity of the gate, its susceptibility to ESD destruction, and the biasing with temperature. But once in the circuit, carefully protected with zeners and snubbers, and fitted with an appropriate bias system, they are wonderful devices and modern mosfets with high transconductance have very little distortion vis a vis bipolar.
HD
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Now - how does it sound?
I've had my Mayas running for under a week - and I could choose to answer the question with a few words, like "absolutely wonderful".
Such a statement would be completely and utterly true, but it would also be unfair to the Mayas and their creator, because they are so much more that just "absolutely wonderful"!
But let me start by saying that I'm in awe! I am in awe that Hugh yet again has managed to create an amplifier that surpasses everything that I have heard from his hand previously, and even though this unfortunately does not include the Glass Harmony I'm sure that the Maya is very much up there and even better in some respects.
The Maya is not a tube amp, but I'll be as bold as to say that it might as well have been, at least when comparing the sound. I have heard quite a few very good (and very expensive) tube amps, and I think the Maya has some of the same qualities, at a fraction of the price! In fact, I'll go so far that I have listened to many amplifiers, tube and SS, costing ten times as much as the Maya, that are no match.
Why am I saying this? Well, I listened extensively to the Maya when I visited Hugh a few years back, and already then I realised that the Maya was something very special - and in fact quite a few steps further up the ladder compared to Hugh's previous creations, the majority of which I have enjoyed having in my system over the last 20 years or so.
Now I have listened to the Mayas extensively again since I got them up and running last week. Many hours.
And it has been a revelation! I have played tracks that I know really well, and I have experienced transformations to the point where some tracks were almost unrecognisable. That's the kind of improvement the Mayas have brought to my system, and it's literally uncanny - almost scary!
But what is it that the Maya does to bring about this kind of improvement? Well, overall it lets you listen very deeply into the recordings (if they are good), and it can do that because it has so much clarity, air and spaciousness, coupled with a myriad of details, and even the details are surrounded by this uncanny air that on good recordings make instruments and voices virtually float in the air.
I've had several surprises during my listening over the last few days. Surprises in the form of recordings that I know really well that have virtually been transformed with the Mayas in the system.
Without going into details, what I have experienced is orchestral works with a previously unheard magnitude of beautiful details and a soundstage with a vastness I have never experienced before, vocal tracks with so much clarity and feeling, and instrumental tracks where new details just keep popping up out of nowhere.
All of this is at an entirely new level from what I have ever heard before in my system - a real WOW experience!
The Maya is a true winner amp, because - apart from everything mentioned above - the Maya still plays music!
Good on you, Hugh!
Cheers,
Jens
I've had my Mayas running for under a week - and I could choose to answer the question with a few words, like "absolutely wonderful".
Such a statement would be completely and utterly true, but it would also be unfair to the Mayas and their creator, because they are so much more that just "absolutely wonderful"!
But let me start by saying that I'm in awe! I am in awe that Hugh yet again has managed to create an amplifier that surpasses everything that I have heard from his hand previously, and even though this unfortunately does not include the Glass Harmony I'm sure that the Maya is very much up there and even better in some respects.
The Maya is not a tube amp, but I'll be as bold as to say that it might as well have been, at least when comparing the sound. I have heard quite a few very good (and very expensive) tube amps, and I think the Maya has some of the same qualities, at a fraction of the price! In fact, I'll go so far that I have listened to many amplifiers, tube and SS, costing ten times as much as the Maya, that are no match.
Why am I saying this? Well, I listened extensively to the Maya when I visited Hugh a few years back, and already then I realised that the Maya was something very special - and in fact quite a few steps further up the ladder compared to Hugh's previous creations, the majority of which I have enjoyed having in my system over the last 20 years or so.
Now I have listened to the Mayas extensively again since I got them up and running last week. Many hours.
And it has been a revelation! I have played tracks that I know really well, and I have experienced transformations to the point where some tracks were almost unrecognisable. That's the kind of improvement the Mayas have brought to my system, and it's literally uncanny - almost scary!
But what is it that the Maya does to bring about this kind of improvement? Well, overall it lets you listen very deeply into the recordings (if they are good), and it can do that because it has so much clarity, air and spaciousness, coupled with a myriad of details, and even the details are surrounded by this uncanny air that on good recordings make instruments and voices virtually float in the air.
I've had several surprises during my listening over the last few days. Surprises in the form of recordings that I know really well that have virtually been transformed with the Mayas in the system.
Without going into details, what I have experienced is orchestral works with a previously unheard magnitude of beautiful details and a soundstage with a vastness I have never experienced before, vocal tracks with so much clarity and feeling, and instrumental tracks where new details just keep popping up out of nowhere.
All of this is at an entirely new level from what I have ever heard before in my system - a real WOW experience!
The Maya is a true winner amp, because - apart from everything mentioned above - the Maya still plays music!
Good on you, Hugh!
Cheers,
Jens
Hi Hugh
fine explanation about the dissipation on the mosfet,,,60v loaded on rail,,it will be very
loud,,nearly ,120db....will blow the rest of my ears away
i still think it is a good idear to have a big headroom from the amp..and the Maya have this
so ,i will think the best way is to get the heatsink big enough, to my cabinet i can mount
300* 4 * 165 mm heatsink 0,31 c/w will this be good ??
Best Bjarne
fine explanation about the dissipation on the mosfet,,,60v loaded on rail,,it will be very
loud,,nearly ,120db....will blow the rest of my ears away
i still think it is a good idear to have a big headroom from the amp..and the Maya have this
so ,i will think the best way is to get the heatsink big enough, to my cabinet i can mount
300* 4 * 165 mm heatsink 0,31 c/w will this be good ??
Best Bjarne
Exactly the same experience with my MAYA too. some thing like a camera focused for a clear picture . sound is focused ... instruments float ... new details keep popping out .... what else to describe... true winner...
Jens enjoy your MAYA.
WOW, Jens, I will take some time to get up off the floor.............!
Many thanks, I am very happy to hear this. True praise!
Ciao,
Hugh
Many thanks, I am very happy to hear this. True praise!
Ciao,
Hugh
@Suresh
From all the feedback I have seen on the Maya, I think those of us in the 'Maya Club' tend to be very much in agreement about what the Maya does and how it sounds 😉
To me, that agreement is yet another testament to how good this amp really is! And yes, I am really enjoying the Mayas - with those in my system, it is by a wide margin the best and most natural sound I have ever had - it's like a fabulous, early Christmas gift!
@Hugh
I hope you got yourself up off the floor, because I think I forgot a few important things about the Maya 🙂 The Maya has a phenomenal way with decay, which along with all its other qualities leads to a very high level of naturalness and 'thereness'.
The way we are describing the Maya here, some people might think that this is a really good hifi amp. But it's not!
This is an amp for music lovers!
From all the feedback I have seen on the Maya, I think those of us in the 'Maya Club' tend to be very much in agreement about what the Maya does and how it sounds 😉
To me, that agreement is yet another testament to how good this amp really is! And yes, I am really enjoying the Mayas - with those in my system, it is by a wide margin the best and most natural sound I have ever had - it's like a fabulous, early Christmas gift!
@Hugh
I hope you got yourself up off the floor, because I think I forgot a few important things about the Maya 🙂 The Maya has a phenomenal way with decay, which along with all its other qualities leads to a very high level of naturalness and 'thereness'.
The way we are describing the Maya here, some people might think that this is a really good hifi amp. But it's not!
This is an amp for music lovers!
You just hit the spot Jens
Maya is not a typical hifi amp,,it make music in a very lively way,,i have also tryed many
different amp,,,diy and finished ,,but the Maya is special,,and i will very much like to
hear the amp, who is better in all area,,i am sure i can not afford it
Best Bjarne
Maya is not a typical hifi amp,,it make music in a very lively way,,i have also tryed many
different amp,,,diy and finished ,,but the Maya is special,,and i will very much like to
hear the amp, who is better in all area,,i am sure i can not afford it
Best Bjarne